I've been stirring up a more vivid appreciation of the 3 characteristics by looking more into what climate scientists are saying the last 5 or 10 years.
,
onbeing.org/blog/kate-marvel-we-need-cou...face-climate-change/

Thanks for posting this. It’s not my own future that concerns me, but the generations after me. They will need courage, as the author says. I wish I were leaving my son a better world.

I believe, frankly, that my generation has effed up the nation and the planet. I'd be happy to elaborate later, but I'm a Baby Boomer. We are, in general, selfish a$$holes now but it wasn't always that way.

I am interested in your further thoughts on this, Chris.

I think we're all selfish assholes, Chris. I'm sure generational differences influence the dire results, and I venture to guess that a lot of it is also due to the common features of adult development over the lifespan. Crazy how we can be so evolved and un-evolved all at once.

By the way, I was born in 1982. Between Gen X and Millennial. Some call me a Xennial... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xennials

Kacchapa wrote:
Well, I think Baby Boomers in the U.S. are selfish as a class. We were raised in a time of a rapidly growing middle class that had increasing access to discretionary funds. While we weren't all wealthy by any means but somehow the idea of infinite economic growth, progress and "get yours while you can" became our economic mantra. We feel we're "owed" if you know what I mean. We're special. Who owes us? We're not sure, but whoever it is better pay up. This is not the spirit of the 1960s and early 1970s, when we were generally of a mind to overthrow the status quo and have something entirely new spring forth afterward. The Who said it for most of us when they sang "We Won't Get Fooled Again." Somehow that revolutionary spirit got put aside in favor or what I think of as economic selfishness. We're on the way to bankrupting the nation because we take more than we give, which has become a major force in politics. Lower taxes on the federal and state levels. More giveaways to people who already have more than they can reasonably spend. Ditto the environment, which we're somehow forgetting belongs to the future, too. I worry for my children and their children. We've forgotten how important it is to be stewards.

It disappoints me, having lived through the last few decades. It's not where I expected my generation would take this nation.

That's my personal take, of course. YMMV.

Chris Marti wrote:
I'm curious to see if Gen X (which I'm sometimes thrust into now that Gen Y is no longer a thing) is much different with respect to stewardship and self-absorption. The trend seems discouraging. I also worry for my child and pretty much expect any child(ren) she produces to at some point inhabit a post-apocalyptic hellscape. Prove me wrong, kids!

In the 90's I was worried about my (potential) grandchildren. Bits and pieces of climate news I've run into in more recent years have made me fear for my kids in their later years.

A few months ago I ran into a documentary about how Australian climate scientists are asking each other where they plan to move with their families to escape the immanent intensification of climate disruption. Tasmania, nearer to the Antartic. Or Britain which is supposed to fare better than Europe. Another said she has several passports for her kids from English speaking countries because she wants to be flexible to move as things change. One said, I can't save them from what's coming but I can try to buy time. Some mentioned how difficult it is to talk with anyone about what they see happening.

I was taken aback and started reading around, listening to lectures, panels, interviews trying to get a sense of how many reputable climate scientists actually are thinking like that. I'm no scholar and not a very good student but I think it's safe to say there is a consensus that the train has left the station as far as cutting back on fossil fuel emissions. We've already raised atmospheric carbon dioxide to the highest level in millions of years, so fast that it will take time for the warming to catch up. But it's already on the way. We're already locked into disastrous warming well beyond IPCCs 1.5 C upper limit. As IPCC acknowledges. So now they're talking about fantastic technology to remove carbon from the atmosphere, and the global community has to take this on as an immediate, existential emergency. The US govt released something similar a few days ago.

Evidently there has been a ton of info out there for several years. I thought I was reading the climate blurbs that show up in the normal news, how'd I miss it. Now that I'm paying attention it seems like it's starting to poke it's way into the mainstream more. But the news aggregators serve up my current interests. I'm not sure how many are really noticing this. I'm going to take my own thoughts to my journal rather than continue here. Just interested to hear what anyone has to say about this, how you practice in light of this.

This was New York Magazine's most widely read article, evidently some people are paying attention.
the annotated version of New York Magazine's the Uninhabitable Earth.
nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-...l?gtm=bottom>m=top

And a free (non-annotated) audio version
livingresilience.net/uninhabitable-earth-audio-version/

The bad news is it could be very bad. The good news is that if it becomes very bad, people will have a whole new appreciation for our earth and the interconnectivity of all the human civilizations on earth. It will be an interesting time.

I suspect it's just in our nature as human beings to need to experience the negative effects of our actions before we do anything to reduce or eliminate those effects. It will be interesting, yes, but also deadly to many who cannot get out of the way of 130-degree daytime highs even in "temperate zones", significantly higher sea levels, increased disease, and the dramatically changing nature of agriculture.

Yeah, I probably should have said I'm using "interesting" in the tradition of the chinese curse: "I hope you live in interesting times."

I knew what you were saying. I just couldn't resist being dramatic. Sorry.

Posting without comment:

www.hokai.info/2018/11/memento/

Interesting synchronicity I just turned to a chapter in one of Gary Weber's books and it is about Self and Sustainability ie how humans can recover the damage they have done to the planet buy updating their, what he calls operating systems. I don't see it. The simple truth is that the majority of humans don't care about others. Not in a selfless way. They help, so they can get something, or praise for helping. Not selfless helping.

I listened to this recent episode of CBC's Tapestry, and it really stroked two of my passions: dharma and astronomy/cosmology. Highly recommended if you are interested in either of those ( ):

www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/humans-are-a-s...tial-dread-1.5161539

Nice!

I can remember the first time I felt confronted by my own impermanent existence: my parents took me to the planetarium in Salt Lake City and the sky show was about the age of the universe. For some reason, as they talked about the death of our sun, I was struck by how small and insignificant I was and how if even the sun was going to die one day then well, so would I. I think I was about 6 or 7 at the time.

BTW, Tom: the reason we went to the planetarium was so that my father could get his 6 "Newtonian mirror aluminized

Finding this an interesting and thought-provoking read:

waitbutwhy.com/story-of-us

I'll be interested to see how it progresses.